Hello bigup401,

The output is correct. See bellow:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $array = ["Test1", "Test2"];

print $array . "\n";

print Dumper $array;

__DATA__

$ perl test.pl
ARRAY(0x83b178)
$VAR1 = [
          'Test1',
          'Test2'
        ];
[download]

You can read a bit more at perlref.

Hope this helps.

thanks, am now getting all lastnames printed but comes in array format with comma, single quots brackets and am not good in regex to remove [', and make it well printed like

John
Doe
Smith
[download]

any idea

my $sth = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("SELECT  lastname FROM dbase");

$dbh->disconnect;
@data = Dumper $sth;
print @data;
[download]

You can't just cobble together various examples and hope to make it work. You need to read the documentation and understand what you are working with.

Start by reading the documentation for DBI related to selectall_arrayref as others have already instructed. Then read the documentation for Perl references.

• DBI
• perlref
• perlreftut
• Tutorial RFC: Guide to Perl references, Part 1

Hello again bigup401,

I found some time and I put together a small example that replicates your script and also the test case.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use DBI;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use Config::Simple;

#package LSPDB;

$|=1; #flush every time the program

my $path = 'conf.ini';
my %config = ();
my $checkExist = "";

sub mysql {
    Config::Simple->import_from("".$path."", \%config)
    or die Config::Simple->error();

    my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql::".$config{'MySQL.host'}.":".$co
+nfig{'MySQL.port'}."", 
               "".$config{'MySQL.user'}."",
               "".$config{'MySQL.pass'}."",
               { 'PrintError' => 1, 'RaiseError' => 1 , 'AutoInactiveD
+estroy' => 1 } 
    ) or die "Could not connect to ". $config{'MySQL.host'} .": ". $DB
+I::errstr ."\n";

    my $databases = $dbh->do("SHOW DATABASES LIKE '".$config{'MySQL.db
+'}."'")
    or die "Error: " .dbh->errstr. "\n";

    if ($databases eq 1) {
    printf "Database: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ." exists not creating: "
+. $config{'MySQL.db'} ."\n";
    }
    else {
    printf "Database: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ." does not exist creatin
+g: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ."\n";

    $checkExist = $dbh->do("CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `".$config{'
+MySQL.db'}."`")
        or die "Could not create the: ".$config{'MySQL.db'}." error: "
+. $dbh->errstr ."\n";
    } # End of else

    $dbh->do("USE ".$config{'MySQL.db'}."")
    or die "Error: " .dbh->errstr. "\n";

    my $tables = $dbh->do("SHOW TABLES FROM `".$config{'MySQL.db'}."`
              WHERE Tables_in_".$config{'MySQL.db'}." LIKE
              '".$config{'MySQL.table'}."'")
    or die "Error: ".dbh->errstr. "\n";

    if ($tables eq 1) {
    printf "Table: ".$config{'MySQL.table'}." exists not creating: ".$
+config{'MySQL.table'}."\n";
    }
    else {
    printf "Table: ".$config{'MySQL.table'}." does not exist creating:
+ ".$config{'MySQL.table'}."\n";

    $checkExist = $dbh->prepare("CREATE TABLE ".$config{'MySQL.table'}
+." (
                    `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
                    `lastname` VARCHAR(25) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL
+ UNIQUE,
                    PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
                    );");

    if (!$checkExist->execute()) {
        die "Error: ". $checkExist->errstr ."\n";
    }
    } # End of else

    $checkExist = $dbh->prepare("INSERT IGNORE INTO `".$config{'MySQL.
+table'}.
                "` (`lastname`) VALUES    ('John'), ('Doe'), ('Jones')
+, ('Smith')");

    if (!$checkExist->execute()) {
    die "Error: ". $checkExist->errstr ."\n";
    }

    my $statement = "SELECT * FROM `".$config{'MySQL.table'}."` WHERE 
+1";

    my $hash_ref = $dbh->selectall_hashref($statement, 'lastname');

    $checkExist->finish();

    $dbh->disconnect()
    or warn "Error disconnecting: $DBI::errstr\n";

    return $hash_ref;

} # End of mysql sub

my $output_ref = mysql();

my @lastnames = keys %$output_ref;

print Dumper $output_ref, \@lastnames;

__DATA__

$ perl mysql.pl
Database: PerlMonks exists not creating: PerlMonks
Table: Data exists not creating: Data
$VAR1 = {
          'Doe' => {
                     'ID' => 2,
                     'lastname' => 'Doe'
                   },
          'John' => {
                      'ID' => 1,
                      'lastname' => 'John'
                    },
          'Smith' => {
                       'lastname' => 'Smith',
                       'ID' => 4
                     },
          'Jones' => {
                       'ID' => 3,
                       'lastname' => 'Jones'
                     }
        };
$VAR2 = [
          'Doe',
          'John',
          'Smith',
          'Jones'
        ];
[download]

The conf.ini file:

[MySQL]
user=user
pass=password
host=localhost
port=3306
db=PerlMonks
table=Data
[download]

On your next question it would be easier for us to provide your minimal working example for replicating your problem.

Hope this helps.

Seeking for Perl wisdom...on the process of learning...not there...yet!